Our Guide to the Best Apple Pay Betting Sites

One of the most recent innovations in making payments – both online and in-person – has been through mobile payment services, such as Apple Pay.

On a day-to-day basis, Apple Pay betting sites are hugely practical and can even cut out the need to carry debit cards – and even your wallet as a whole. Services like Apple Pay function in a very similar way to e-wallets, as they don’t store your card or bank details, and therefore nor can they be shared when making a purchase.

Unfortunately, mobile payment systems such as these remain in the minority, although some more progressive online bookmakers have started accepting Apple Pay.

This guide to Apple Pay will explore how to use the service, the pros and cons of doing so, the security of it, before looking at the best betting sites that accept Apple Pay.

How to Deposit Successfully with Apple Pay

In order to pay using this digital wallet service, the first thing you need to do is ensure that you have sufficient funds in your Apple Pay account. To do this you simply need to go into the app, and select ‘Add Money’. You’ll then select how you’d like to add funds to your Apple Pay account.

Once you have funds available, you can then make a deposit at an online bookmaker using Apple Pay. This process is very simple, requiring the player to go to the deposit section of the bookmaker (usually found in the top right part of the site) which will open a new window. Players then need to select their payment method (Apple Pay in this instance) and select the amount they’d like to deposit. You’ll then be asked to enter the device specific number and a unique transaction code – which you can find in the Apple Pay app. And that’s it, you’ve deposited at a bookie using Apple Pay. The bigger challenge though, is finding available apple pay betting sites in the UK.

How to Sign Up for an Account to Make Payments

There’s no need to sign-up specifically for an Apple Pay account, as this is included as part of your Apple ID. Apple Pay is unsurprisingly only available on Apple devices, with the similar Android Pay service available to Android users.

Apple Pay is available to use on any Apple device, but is most popular on the iPhone or iPad, as this allows people to make payments on the go. Often, Apple Pay will be pre-installed on your device, so you just need to set it up with your relevant deposit options.

The Pros and Cons of Using the Payment Service

The biggest benefit of using Apple Pay in general is the convenience it affords. By using Apple Pay, it cuts down the need to carry other objects to make payments – namely cash and cards. The wallet-free life is an appealing one, and the likes of Apple Pay and Android Pay are inevitably going to grow in popularity in the coming years.

Another huge perk of Apple Pay betting is the privacy it affords users as it does not keep transaction information that can be traced back to the user. The app is also very secure and can’t be accessed if someone steals your phone, it needs either a fingerprint or PIN code to access.

However, the biggest downside is that Apple Pay can’t currently be used to withdraw funds from your account – so you’ll need a separate payment method in order to get funds out again. Also, there are very few Apple Pay bookies operating currently.

Using Apple Pay on Your Mobile Device

By the very nature of Apple Pay, most of the transactions that take place will be using a mobile device. At online bookmakers, it is generally irrelevant whether you are making a deposit using a desktop, tablet or smartphone (either through your mobile browser or a native sports betting app), as the payment methods tend to be the same.

Using Apple Pay to make a deposit on a mobile phone is especially easy though, as the Apple Pay app will recognise that you are trying to make a payment with the software and automatically complete the details, with players simply needing to confirm their purchase with a fingerprint scan or PIN code.

Safety and Security

Apple is well-known for offering some of the highest technology security levels in the world, and Apple Pay is no different – providing a secure service that guarantees privacy through encryption.

What’s more, by using Apple Pay to deposit at a bookmaker, the player adds an extra layer of security to their data, as they don’t have to rely on trusting the bookmaker with their banking information – which is simply one less thing to worry about.

The History of the Deposit Method

Apple Pay is one of the most recent innovations from Apple Inc., and was first introduced to users in 2014. Combined with Touch ID (the fingerprint scanner), the app made an innovative leap in providing users with a fast payment experience – either when shopping online or in the “real” world, making use of new contactless payment technology.

The service became available en-masse in the UK in 2015, and continued to rollout around the world in the following year. It didn’t take long before bookmakers and Apple Pay partnered to provide a safe payment method tailored for mobile users.

Alternative Payment Methods

As Apple Pay is still yet to be accepted at most sports gambling sites, players can instead make use of other similar e-wallet services, such as Neteller, Skrill or PayPal, if they want to make secure deposits online without the need to hand over their bank details to bookmakers.

Another payment option for players is to use paysafecard, which again provides a great deal of data privacy and is actually the only way to make cash deposits at online bookmakers through use of their voucher-like system.

Conclusion

While Apple Pay is a very secure, fast and easy way to make payments online, it is unfortunately very underutilised as a payment method at online bookmakers as of 2018. There are only some established online bookmakers accepting apple pay, including bet365, 888sport and SkyBet – although it is still not possible to withdraw funds using the method – which remains a big challenge.

It seems inevitable though that we’ll see more new betting sites making use of Apple Pay in the coming years, especially if the service presents an opportunity to withdraw funds as well as deposit them.